Mustafa Kemal Mirzeler

The Emergence of Lake Rudolf as an Iconic Colonial Space

Lake Rudolf, which is also known as Lake Turkana, lies in the eastern arm of the great Rift Valley. It is primarily fed by the Omo River, which flows south from the Ethiopian highlands and sits in an inhospitable landscape of dormant volcanoes, wind-driven semidesert, and old lava flows. During the morning hours, strong gusts of wind usually blow from the east down the slopes of Mount Kulal and across the surface of the lake. This unrelenting wind creates large, whitecapped waves on the lakes surface and makes navigation almost impossible. It also gives the lake a bluish color, reflecting the clear sky above. However, when the wind dies down in the afternoon, the lake takes on the color of green jade, due to algae that rise to the surface when the waters are calm. It is because of this afternoon and evening color that the lake has long been known as the Jade Sea (Imperato: 1998:3).

The Tricksters of Karamoja

Karamojong oral tradition provides several trickster characters such as the rabbit, the self-appointed moral guard. This rabbit pretends to defend the weak and the powerless, yet secretly steals from them, but in the end gets exposed for what it really is. Then there is the clever fox, which skilfully tricks people with its clever manipulations, convincing them that it is honest and upright, not unlike the rabbit, but then it too gets caught stealing. Napeikisina, the one-breasted villain trickster, the symbol of humanitys penchant for evil, masquerades her insatiable cannibalistic propensities and desire for recognition, but her penchant for evil eventually becomes apparent, thus frightening people, and like all the other tricksters she too gets caught. Ben Knighton seems to possess some of the attributes of some of these tricksters. With amazing legerdemain, he skilfully manages to conjure up oral and written texts in an attempt to persuade people to believe that what they read is authentic, in order to offer himself as the paramount authority on all matters Karamoja. But he too ends up getting caught, like all the Karamojong tricksters.

Narrating the Memories of Ermeni Mezalimi

In the last one hundred years, Western scholars have assembled a deep and varied record documenting Turkish violence aimed at Armenians. This record has prompted some Western scholars and politicians to characterize the World War I deportation of and attacks on Armenians as genocidal. In contrast, narratives preserved by families and in local culture that focus on violent acts committed by Armenians against Muslims (known as Ermeni mezalimi) generally have been ignored. Muslims in Anatolia tell these stories not only because they unite them against their perceived common enemies, but also because they find comfort in stories that emphasize the similarities of their experiences. Their identity as Muslims, so essential to their lives, is articulated in tales of the Ermeni mezalimi. Storytellers use traditional symbolism and other folkloric techniques to delineate problematic past interactions between Muslims and their Christian Armenian neighbors. To guide the audience on this emotional journey, the storytellers use performative arts to suggest that Armenians, with whom their ancestors once lived side-by-side in villages, sharing one anothers neighborly hospitalities, betrayed, in the World War I era, both the Ottoman state and their Muslim neighbors by uniting with their mortal enemies, the Christian Russians. The historical element in these stories is mixed with folklore as well as with the needs and demands of the audience the storytellers encounter in their local environment. While these stories do preserve memories of a traumatic era in eastern Anatolia, because they intertwine history, folklore, and contemporary needs, their value for historical reconstruction is limited.

The Importance of Being Honest: Verifying Citations, Rereading Historical Sources, and Establishing Authority in the Great Karamoja Debate

Anthropologists pay considerable attention to the writing style, the construction of a text, and the question of ethnographic authority, particularly since Derek Freemans critique of Margaret Meads Samoa writings. Although the issue of representation of the history and culture of far-flung peoples in the form of the written report is a long and distinguished tradition in the field of cultural anthropology, the Freeman/Mead debates have raised a number of questions ranging from the problem of faulty citation practices to the issue of vulnerable ethnographic authority. The debate over Freemans critique of Mead has developed into a major controversy and was featured at the 1983 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Marshall 1993:604). Since then, numerous articles and books have been written on the debate, and while many people have become tired of the “whole mess”, the case continues to attract scholarly attention. Critiques of Freeman often revolve around the sources Freeman used to support his historical argument against Mead, illuminating how Freeman used rhetorical devices, selectively omitted vital passages in historical documents that he cited, and “heavily” used partial quotations and (sometimes) ellipses, in order to “…undermine Meads ethnographic authority and enhance his own” (e.g., Marshall 1993:604).

The embodiment of the voyage of sir vivian fuchs to the South Island in the elmolo oral tradition

This article explores the incorporation of the memories of Sir Vivian Fuchss voyage to the South Island and the deaths of two of his expedition members in I934 into the Elmolos oral traditions. The incorporation of the memory of the voyage brought out a new meaning in the Elmolo oral traditions, transformed their identity, and epitomized their traditional memory. What made the memory of Fuchss voyage flourish and enter into Elmolo oral tradition is the story of their great tragic heroine Sepenya. The myth of Sepenya has made it possible for Fuchss voyage and the deaths of two of its expedition members to flourish and to become a part of the Elmolos oral traditions, as an objectification of the phenomenon of Sepenya.

Reading Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes: Political and Racial Sentiments in the Travel Writings of Alexander Bulatovich, 1896-1898

It is hard to imagine so many contrasts united in one person, as are united in the Abyssinian character. Their character is like the nature around them-where precipices, cliffs, mountains and plains alternate among one another, and cold is mixed with tropical heat. If I allow myself a rather free comparison, this is how I would characterize the Abyssinian. He is talented and receptive, like a Frenchman. With his practicality, with the way he deals with those he has conquered and his governmental abilities, he is like an Englishman. His pride is like that of a Spaniard. By his love for his faith, his mildness of character and tolerance, he is like a Russian. By his commercial abilities, he is like a Jew. But in addition to all these characteristics, he is very brave, cunning, and suspicious (Seltzer 2000:73). For us, Abyssinia can present the following interest. Having cast a glance at the map of Central Africa and on the borders of the Ethiopian Empire, you can easily see that being located in the vicinity of the Middle Nile, halfway between Egypt and the great lakes, which belong to England, Abyssinia, which is expanding each year more and more and taking large tracts of land which had been free-rich and densely populated territory-must become the natural and main enemy of England in Central Africa. England is also our enemy. To help the enemy of our enemy, to make him as much stronger as possible-that is our main goal in Abyssinia (Seltzer 2000:144).